Disruption 101 For Self-Publishers

The publishing industry is undergoing significant disruption. Amazon is pushing down book prices and controlling the point of sale. Self-publishers are flooding the market with cheap books, producing some very high quality work that competes with traditionally published books, and proving a new business model that may well lure authors away from traditional deals.

The level of disruption cannot be underestimated, and it’s going to have a significant impact on publishing as we currently know it.

“Of those, 100% created a separate digital unit to take on the disruption. Not one company […] succeeded trying to develop digital inside the existing company.”

Gilbert is a former Harvard Business School professor who now runs the Deseret News and Deseret Digital Media in Utah, and Christensen is, of course, the author of The Innovator's Dilemma, a book as relevant now as when it was written in 1997.

Although Gilbert is in the news business, his findings apply just as well to books. The parallels between news and books are close: both produce easily digitised content, both have legacy costs, both struggle with commercial innovation, and both have been slow to adapt to technology. Indeed, I believe the news industry is a much closer parallel to books than the oft-cited music industry.

Gilbert has produced six principles for how media companies must deal with disruption, which should be of interest to all publishers. I also think that it’s important for self-publishers to understand these principles as well, even though we are part of the disruptive force. The landscape is changing and will only change more as the the disruption truly takes hold.

Whilst some of these principles apply mostly to traditional businesses, there are some that are relevant to self-publishers.

1. Create a separate digital unit

Gilbert’s first finding, that only companies which created separate digital units survive disruption, is the one that he gets most push-back on. But, he says, the evidence is so compelling that to argue against it is “like arguing against gravity”. However, while having a separate digital unit is essential to survival, by itself it is not sufficient to guarantee success.

2. Transform the legacy business as well

The second of Gilbert’s principles is that companies must transform their legacy — print — business as well as creating a new digital unit, adding new revenue streams and developing new markets. I think Osprey and Angry Robot are great examples of how to explore new products and revenue streams such as subscriptions and memberships.

But there are a lot of core business transformations that publishers also need to address, including improved author accounting, better collaboration tools and practices, and the improvement of digital understanding across not just one imprint but entire houses. There are also editorial innovations to come, not just around the potential for technology to create new storytelling platforms, but also around how authors are developed through canny use of short stories and novellas.

Self-publishers too would be wise to learn these lessons. Don’t just look to book sales for your revenue, explore other models too. It’s also very important that self-publishers understand the efficiencies technology can provide. You have limited resources; make the most of them.

3. Legacy transformation: Get smaller and better

Gilbert’s third principle is that legacy transformation involves getting smaller and getting better. Many publishers have already shed a lot of editorial staff, moving from an employee to a freelance model, but that’s not enough. Remember, it’s smaller and better, not just smaller.

Publishers also need to understand their market in more detail, and that means readers not retailers. They need to connect with readers and form the kinds of deep relationships that the likes of Amazon simply can’t manage.

Self-publishers must take this latter lesson to heart, not least because Amazon will happily ride roughshod over self-publishers if it turns out to make business sense. Don’t let retailers control your relationships with your readers.